I recently decided to get the P850 because I do a lot of football photography at night and during the day.My problem is I am camera illiterate and none of this stuff makes any sense to me. I was wondering if you could upload some of the football pictures you took and also tell me how you set custom settings and what settings you used. Stadium lighting is very bad at the field I take pictures at and I have heard its best to set it at ISO 800 f 2/8 1/350 with no flash or with the external flash connected. So that is all giberish to me and I was wondering if you could explain it to me and how to set it to thatand tell me if you agreed with that?

Thank you very much!!

Crystal

Hi Crystal, the settings you have been told are good but I guess ISO 800 would not be great on P850 as it will go for 1.8mp resolution only. Better to stay at ISO 400, f-2.8 but be sure to have accurate WB setting, that will take care of exposure. In your P850 you have to go for PASM mode with dial control and in full manual mode (M-mode) you can change all these values.

You need to work on your technique. First, set the ISO to the highest level. Second, you'll need to shoot at the maximum aperature so pick a spot, focus on it (manual focus is best) and wait for the action to come to you.

That's not true. I've taken very good pictures of my son playing hockey with a three year old Sony 717. You just need how to do it.

You should read the manual, ask questions of the person that sold you the camera, take lots of pictures (experimenting with different settings) subscribe to photo magazines and join a camera club if you really want to learn.